One of the best parts about covering the Gilroy High football
team is that I learn something new each day. It could be a tidbit
about a player or coach, or it could deal with the way the game is
played, but there’s always something.
This season, along with learning some of the finer points of how
Gilroy’s aerial attack works and what the defense is doing to make
opposing quarterbacks’ heads spin, I’ve been introduced to new
terminology.
I’ve never heard many of the words, and they have nothing to do
with X’s and O’s. They do make me feel old at 26.
I’m taking a crash course in the slang of high schoolers. The
results haven’t been pretty.
One of the best parts about covering the Gilroy High football team is that I learn something new each day. It could be a tidbit about a player or coach, or it could deal with the way the game is played, but there’s always something.
This season, along with learning some of the finer points of how Gilroy’s aerial attack works and what the defense is doing to make opposing quarterbacks’ heads spin, I’ve been introduced to new terminology.
I’ve never heard many of the words, and they have nothing to do with X’s and O’s. They do make me feel old at 26.
I’m taking a crash course in the slang of high schoolers. The results haven’t been pretty.
I got a tip this week that the Mustang players have a ritual of singing a certain song before games to get hyped. Feeling like there was a good reason for the call – maybe it was just to show how not cool I am – I went to practice and asked starting receiver Dante Fullard what the song is.
“A song?” he said. It didn’t seem to ring a bell. I felt like I had just been prank-called.
“Yeah, something before games I was told.”
“Oh, yeah. We have a song. The offense does it more than the defense.”
“What is it?”
“Mollywop by Stunna Man.”
Mollywop, I thought. Should I know that word? What the hell does mollywop mean?
“It means to punch someone really hard, beat someone down.”
How fitting. Gilroy has won all five of its games by an average of 35. That officially counts as a beatdown.
Just to make sure I had the right word, I went to my trusty source in these matters: UrbanDictionary.com.
Definition 2: “To be hit with an open hand or closed fist extremely hard. The person hitting you has to follow through and come down with it so that you feel the true force.”
Several of the Mustangs’ opponents have felt the full impact of losses landing on them like a ton of bricks. Archbishop Mitty, 62-13. Alvarez, 57-0. Salinas, 45-2.
Next up, 2-3 Pacific Grove. Oh man, Pacific Grove is in so much trouble. Seriously, bro. (That’s the slang I know.)
Usually a strong squad that leaves its heart on the field and is rewarded with wins, the Breakers simply don’t have the same talent as past teams that routinely wrapped up Mission Trail Athletic League titles. Pacific Grove has won two in a row, but over Greenfield and Soledad. Those teams are best described as … Greenfield and Soledad.
Fans commenting on MBayPreps.com, a statistics Web-site for local schools, are starting to worry Gilroy, currently ranked 22nd in the state by CalHiSports.com, will post 60 or 70 points on PG at 7:30 p.m. tonight. Several people turned the argument in a different direction, though, saying the Mustangs have been running up the score on teams, starting with last year’s 57-27 win in the Prune Bowl.
I completely disagree. The Haybalers could have dropped more than all 11 defenders into coverage and still would have gotten burned deep. That’s the way Gilroy plays. Runs up the gut wouldn’t have helped the team prepare for the playoffs the next week.
Here are this year’s goals: The Mustangs want to win a Tri-County Athletic League title for a second straight season, then a Central Coast Section crown in the Open Division, and then a state bowl game. Let that sink in.
Gilroy wants to be known as the best high school football team in the state of California.
You don’t get there unless you improve each week. And no offense to Alvarez and Salinas – even though both teams could use some offense – but Gilroy could have won those games playing only second- and third-teamers. Getting first-team guys some excercise and backups opportunities to make plays, even if it means going to the air on offense late in games, makes sense. After all, Gilroy is a passing team and that doesn’t change when Jamie Jensen, Sean Hale and Fullard walk off the field.
Gilroy’s offense was designed to score in less than two minutes. Taking an approach similar to the Phoenix Suns’ philosophy of “seven seconds or less” to shoot the basketball, the Mustang offense isn’t designed to take all day getting down the field. Two minutes is more than necessary. Gilroy wants to spread you out, hit a short route and make a guy miss, or simply go over the top. After that, it’s time to give the kickers a chance to trot out in their fancy shoes for the PAT and kickoff.
More possessions means more chances for the Mustangs to score if they aren’t clicking to start. When they are, the other team is in for a hard day’s night.
To reassure you that I’m not completely useless, I’d like to share another thing I learned about high school football this week: State rankings are arbitrary for most of the season. It would be better to have a preseason poll, then start fresh at the halfway point. (I’m in favor of the same idea for college football rankings.)
I asked the editor of CalHiSports.com, Mark Tennis, a man who knows his California high school football as good as anybody after three decades of coverage and statistical research, why the Mustangs were 14 spots below No. 8 Valley Christian. I noted that both teams return similar rosters, Gilroy won a matchup in last year’s playoffs by 16 and beat this season’s common opponent, Mitty, by 21 more points.
“It’s all about the schedule,” Tennis said by e-mail. “VC has played a schedule so far that is stronger.”
Fair enough. But then Tennis added, “Gilroy does have a head-to-head win from last year, but VC has won many more CCS titles. Some don’t think tradition has any part of a ranking, but we do.”
Really? How exactly are players and coaches from the past supposed to make teams of today better? That’s also like saying losers of yesteryear should be counted against you, even if you don’t know anything about that tradition, or lack thereof.
Tennis added that if Valley Christian knocks off No. 3 Bellarmine in their game tonight, the Warriors would become the top team in the state.
If I’m Gilroy, the possibility of Valley Christian being called the best team in California is proof that a state championship is well within reach. I’m not telling the GHS players and coaches anything they don’t already know. It’s me who’s always learning.
Next on my list: Finding a way to work mollywop into conversation without it happening to me.
